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THURSDAY, July 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Obesity. Diabetes. Heart disease. COPD. Kidney disease. These chronic medical conditions all raise the risk of suffering a severe case of COVID-19, but a new government report shows some parts of the United States are far more vulnerable to these risks than others. In a review of more than 3,000 U.S. counties, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that "the median county prevalence of any of five underlying medical conditions that increase the risk for severe COVID-19-associated illness was 47.2%, and prevalences were higher in counties in the southeastern United States and in more rural counties." It's not surprising that the pandemic is hitting the southeast and rural communities particularly hard,...

THURSDAY, July 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Nearly half of U.S. teens have been stalked or harassed by a partner or done the deed themselves, a new study finds. "These victimization and perpetration numbers are unacceptably high," said study author Emily Rothman, a professor of community health sciences at Boston University's School of Public Health. "Unfortunately, they are in line with estimates of similar problems like dating and sexual violence victimization, so they are both shocking and unsurprising at the same time," Rothman said in a university news release. The study included 148 boys and 172 girls, aged 12 to 18, who were in relationships or had been in relationships in the past year. The teens were asked if a partner had ever followed or spied on them, damaged something...

THURSDAY, July 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The steroid medication dexamethasone has been proven to help people severely ill with COVID-19. Now a new study hints that other drugs in the same class may also work -- in the right patients. The findings are from a review of one hospital's experience, not a clinical trial. So researchers said the results should be interpreted with some caution. But the study suggests that a class of cheap, long-used medications -- including, but not limited to dexamethasone -- could aid in the COVID-19 fight. The findings may also help pinpoint which hospitalized patients stand to benefit, and which ones could actually be harmed. Researchers at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City looked at more than 1,800 COVID-19 patients admitted to their...

THURSDAY, July 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Hundreds of suicides could be prevented in the United States each year if the minimum age for buying a handgun was raised to 21 in the 33 states that have a minimum age of 18, according to a new study. Suicide rates, especially among teens, have been rising in the United States. Guns have caused more than half of these deaths, the authors said in background notes. For this study, researchers analyzed data on suicides by teens ages 13-20 in the 46 states that didn't change their handgun sales policies between 2001 and 2017. A minimum age of 18 to buy a handgun was associated with 344 extra deaths on average among young people ages 18-20 during the study period. However, a minimum age of 21 to buy a handgun was associated with an 18% lower...